Category: social media

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the Simply Communicate event Smile London and interview some of the speakers, panellists and attendees via a live feed on Facebook during the breaks – thanks to all those at home that tuned in! This is the larger event from the team at Simply Communicate with the Expo taking place earlier in the year.

The day was filled with interviews on stage and round tables with some interesting case studies that covered the use of robotics, analytics and launch campaigns. I have attended the Smile events for a number of years and it was interesting to hear some themes today that made me think we need to start moving the conversation forward:

Adoption is not a measure of success
The use of the word ‘adoption’ was a big topic for discussion both in the room and on Twitter – especially when we are hearing stats like ‘Workplace has over 70% adoption’. But adoption does but not tell us about the engagement in the platform. It doesn’t tell us what people are doing and how they are using the platform – understanding how many people have claimed an account is not the same as people contributing to the discussion. It’s time to have a better conversation about engagement online and what good really looks like. I was pleased that when I interviewed Nick Crawford on the topic he was able to clarify that the percentage of active users was equally strong.

Integration is the future
There is no one platform for success anymore and I think chasing one to do everything is a hard ask. We heard case studies that showed how Facebook Workplace is integrating with other platforms and how some companies are turning off elements of Microsoft’s suite to enable better conversations and collaboration. There is no one size fits all and there is no silver bullet – there never has been. It takes time to understand your audience, your culture and how you want to shape it and then find the right mix of tools to meet those needs.

Culture and making time for each other should be on your radar
There was little talk about the importance of culture and relationships in the workplace to enable conversations and collaboration. Relationships across departments were described as battles in some questions to the presenters – why are comms and IT battling for the same thing? Working together, making time to talk and discuss the goals and visions for each department is the only way we can succeed when it comes to creating a digital workplace – or in fact a sustainable communications strategy.

Relax or rule?
The panel debate around governance was interesting – mainly because I think the definition of governance is different for different people. I was baffled to hear one of the panellist suggest that creating a naming convention was basically impossible. Naming conventions contribute to that cultural element and the tone of voice of the organisation. They help employees find what they are looking for online and ensure they have the right piece of information from a trusted source – I was glad to see Sharon O’Dea on the panel talking some sense about all this!

The budget needs to be split
It was great to hear from the team at Pandora that they split the budget into thirds; one on the platform, one on marketing and the final third on training. This is so rare to hear and so very important. I know from my own experience as a global head of comms that I only managed to get buy-in to an ESN by flying to see the team, running workshops on what they needed help with and then tailoring everything to them. Again, this is about investing time rather than money – it’s just the cost of travel and this shouldn’t be seen as a blocker.

We are not Ninjas!
A new term for me was Digital Ninjas. This is the new word for change agents or comms champions and I can’t help but think this is a little odd. A Ninja, by definition, is a covert agent linked to sabotage and assassination – that’s not the right connotation for someone trying to help a business engage in a new communications channel / cultural change with a digital workplace agenda.

We need to have clear definitions
Earlier this month I hosted the CIPR Inside conference where we published the findings of our research into the strategic value of internal communication. One of the things we highlighted was the need to distinguish between internal communication and employee engagement. Yesterday, I fear the same is true when it comes to talking about digital workplace, intranets, social media, ESN – I heard all of these used interchangeably throughout the day which just makes it harder to have those meaningful conversations with business leaders.

There were some thought-provoking debates throughout the day – thank you to all the presenters, those that came for an interview and the team at Simply for organising it all!

I started a brief Twitter conversation on how this translates to social media inside the workplace and realised quickly that 140 characters wasn’t going to be enough to get my thinking across (even the new 280 won’t cut it).

What is the potential damage of social media inside organisations? No one thought social media could be linked to the likes of drink and drugs when it started but the parallels are frighteningly real.

I’m not comparing like for like here. Internal social media isn’t necessarily about sharing your photos from your holiday and projecting a perfect life. But, as a manager of a retail store, how do I feel when someone smashes their target and posts it online for all employees to like and share? Am I left feeling deflated and depressed that I haven’t done so well without knowing all the facts about how they achieved it?

Are we mature enough, cultural, for the manager without the great sales to comment with a question asking how did you do it? Any tips? Or are we still fostering competitive environments inside the workplace that go against every grain of collaboration you can imagine? I fear the latter.

The buzz around wellbeing has been on the corporate agenda for a number of years but what is this really? As we introduce these new channels to the workplace are we considering the mental health aspects? Are we considering the introverts, the late adopters, the people who want to come and do a great job and go home?

Can our wellbeing plans catch up with the pace of society and the reality that a charity bake sale and football match won’t cut it? Can the workplace start to explore its role in our now dopamine filled lives and help us get back to some of the basics of human behaviour? Can we have time in meetings to chat about our weekends, rules to put the phones away and regular breaks on the agenda to check in on things outside the room?

We are not too busy to take this seriously. We are not mindless enough to rush from meeting to meeting, task to task without considering the impact of it all. And social media inside organisations needs to come with a little warning – think about the impact on people and think about the culture you are trying to create. It’s not just a channel, for many it is the only way they know how to communicate.

On Thursday I attended the 2017 Intranet Now conference in London – a day of talking digital with a room full of people responsible for intranet development. As always, the day was filled with 9 and 15-minute talks from a range of companies, experts and organisations.

So, what were the themes this year and what were my top takeaways from the day?

Task based content is king

It was amazing to see all the different intranets out there, and how some have been changed and adapted over the years. This is what I love about this conference – it’s the only place you can see behind the firewall and into the intranets of other organisations.

The example from Standard Life Aberdeen was the best example I have seen of changing to task based content – just six months after launch. You can see from the images below the change they made to the top level and the mega menu – it’s not a small change!

The need to focus on tasks when designing menus and the overall IA of the intranet is a definite shift from previous years and something to consider for anyone reviewing their intranet.

The six things we want from an intranet

The team at Barnados presented a great case study of the journey they have been on and shared the six things people identified in their discovery phase. Both Rachel Miller and I commented that based our experience – this could be any organisation. Those six reasons are:

Simpler processes

Easier connections

Saving time

Personalise

Single source of truth

Feel part of a bigger story

Finding the right solution to meet these six themes will vary for every organisation but taking them as the principles for the rationale for an intranet platform is a great starting point for anyone.

What was interesting about this example was the need to combine a social platform like Facebook Workplace with an intranet platform that allows for the single source of truth – I hope the team come back to share how the final solution came together and how the launch went!

Remember the reasons for the platform

The presentation from Sarah Moffat was a real highlight for me. Partly because it echoed some work I have done in the past to use digital solutions to engage managers, but mainly because it was ultimately using the technology to solve a particular challenge and integrating it into the wider channel mix. The line manager page with a supporting email cuts through the noise, provides everything in one place and saves time.

My definition of internal communication includes the need for efficiency and using digital platforms to do this should be part of any internal comms strategy today.

There were other presentations throughout the day that echoed the importance of the goals of the project. Don’t create something as a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

There are always some big themes and some smaller takeaways from events – here are my smaller takeaways from the sessions:

Consider just how much governance you really need and don’t create rules and processes for the sake of it

Everyone learns at a different pace so make sure you have time in the plans to build people’s confidence in the platform. The stats around computer skills were a real eye opener!

Being the most senior person in the room doesn’t mean you’re the most powerful anymore

Accountability and the RACI model are important. I use RASCI – Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consult, Inform. Support is a useful addition

We have yet to really solve the challenge around search. It seems to be the thing people complain about most

We are creating an intranet that is a front door to the digital campus

The theory behind change projects hasn’t changed – we saw a model from 1987 which is still very relevant today

I was lucky enough to join the panel at the end of the day and there was a question on personalisation and collaboration that has stayed with me – further blog to follow on that theme!

So, if you’re working with intranets do check out @intranetnow and be sure to look out for the tickets next year. This event is a must-attend for those working in digital.

On Tuesday I attended the Simply Communicate Smile Expo in London. It was a day of learning for me in some areas and a day that left me wondering how many more years it will take for us to move forward with the digital workplace agenda we have been talking about for years already…

50% of the workforce will be millennials by 2020

So what? As Jakkii Musgrave @slybeer pointed out on twitter – they are already in the workplace and already using emails. The argument that we all need to stop using emails because of millennials is bonkers. Yes email isn’t the right tool for everything and yes people use it wrongly, but it equally has a place. I constantly hear people using email as an excuse not to do anything “email doesn’t work for me, I need to see you or talk to you” well that’s all lovely but if we had to do that for everything, we would be living in meetings which many of us are already!

Having heard Simon Sinek discuss the world of millennials just the other week the topic remains top of mind, but after researching and writing about them for my CIPR Diploma a few years ago there is little to suggest we need to rapidly change the use of email inside organisations.

The intranet is a place for static content and the collaboration platforms should sit alongside it

I could not disagree more with this statement and I think it’s time to redefine an intranet. In a previous role, I was lucky enough to have a relationship with IT that meant we were able to work together to try and change how our business communicated. Working with IBM we launched channels that were integrated, talked to each other, with an end goal of having one platform that could launch you to anything seamlessly – no it isn’t finished and yes user adoption was incredibly challenging.

The thought that everyone is picking up shiny new collaboration tools to sit alongside other intranet platforms, getting users to go to lots of different places and then only measuring the click rates or the likes or the number of people with profile pictures is not where we should be – where is the conversation about the content and engagement?

How do you define a digital workplace?

The session on digital workplace – hype vs reality was run by the team at Simply Communicate and was probably the best session of the day for me. It was interactive, prompted discussion and debate and was the most honest about where we are now. You can see the 6 definitions we were exploring on the day below but for me, it has to be number 6 with a little edit so my definition of a digital workplace is:

The digital workplace is the experience of work delivered through the collective use of connected devices, software and interfaces to drive efficiencies and engagement through the organisation.

What was equally good about this session was the discussion about moving from a personalised intranet, to a social intranet to the digital workplace and I really do think we are still far away from all being comfortable with a social intranet let alone a digital workplace.

Is the answer something like Workplace by Facebook because the majority of users will know the functionality? Maybe. But the fundamental challenge of connecting people at work who serve customers, without mobile phones to hand and an expectation to use their own device in their own time is not something a new channel can fix overnight.

Chatbots and ducks

I cannot thank Sharon O’Dea enough for her session on chatbots. This is an area still quite unknown so I was grateful for the chance to hear more and understand how they could be applied internally and throughout the exercises it became clear we can naturally complicate scenarios that should be simple. As an internal communicator interested in driving efficiencies through digital communication, this sort of advancement is fascinating for our industry.

The final session was a reminder about the importance of project planning and I’m thankful again for my IT project manager for teaching me some of these skills already. Adrienne took us all through some good principles around project management and while it seems really heavy – taking the time to do this will make the project much easier.

As I left the event on Tuesday I felt motivated and a little saddened that our journey to create a digital workplace still seems far away. The investment from organisations to do this and do it well is still minimal and the adoption piece is always the bit that gets left behind. To be an internal communicator today your drive and tenacity must be excellent to drive through the business case, the budget requirements, the resource and the ongoing development. Do we really need it? Yes…go and spend a day working in an organisation where there is no collaboration platform in place and you will easily see how difficult it is to work efficiently across multiple sites and countries in today’s business world.

Today I attended my second, albeit not consecutively, simply communicate SMiLE event in London. The format was much the same as before but my reasons for attending very different. Now four months into the new role I need to learn more about Office 365 so I was on the hunt to learn more.

There were some great sessions throughout the day that prompted some food for thought and some great research shared from both Lecko and People Lab about using Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) inside our businesses. Thank you to Wedge for the table session on news and the intranet – the most valuable part of my day.

The biggest thing I left with today was a sense of the need to stop. There are new tools entering this marketplace every year, if not every month. The current new tool is Facebook Workplace and while it was great to hear more about it – I’m already on my journey with Microsoft so for me, the session was interesting but not practical for application. And now I feel bad. Now I feel like I am letting my business down by not having the latest and greatest tool out there – and this isn’t the case.

With the constant new tools entering the space we are bombarded with messages about why one is better than the other and how you should have this or that technology because it is more in line with how we communicate today – but the truth is, it is a big investment. It is a big investment of time and money to launch and community manage an ESN. The companies that built them years ago – IBM, Microsoft – are constantly evolving them and if we have bought them, we need to nurture that relationship and learn together to adapt to how people change in the way they communicate.

Throwing out one tool for another won’t solve our problems. Yes we probably need to be quicker at adapting to change and integrating these platforms with others, and we also need to make sure our comms teams have the skills to evolve with the needs of the people and the functionality the tools can bring. But we can do all this if we work together.

I had some brilliant conversations today, learnt a vast amount about what I need to do for success in my organisation and got myself back into reality in knowing that I’m on the right track. But my ask for the future of any event about social media inside organisations is this:

Tell us how others have adapted and grown something they invested in years ago

Tell us how the strategy for collaboration has been a long-term wow – to quote intranetizen – and not a big bang launch

Understand where the audience is on the journey – some having nothing and others have had office 365 for the last few years and need to improve it

Tell us how to drive adoption, measure success and work with what we have to make it amazing

Everyone’s journey is different but we are all on one. I don’t want to feel like I’m behind the curve because I don’t have the latest and greatest – I want to feel proud of the tool I have, how it has grown, developed and adapted to the needs of my internal customers and I want my peers to celebrate (and when needed commiserate) with me. There was an audible laugh in the room when IBM Connections came up – I wonder how many people in the room have ever used it or know that it has been voted the number 1 platform for 5 years, ahead of SharePoint, for functionality. I know because I used it for years and while adoption remains a challenge – when people can see what it can do, they are blown away.

Let’s stop being trendy and get back to being functional – helping our colleagues collaborate and our businesses be more efficient – that is, after all, the goal (for me anyway).

Yesterday I had the honour of presenting at the IBM Smarter Workforce Summit (#swf2015) at the Kia Oval in London. Sadly I missed the morning but as I popped in to talk to them about the journey of collaboration I have been on for the past few years it was clear the day had been good.

A very engaged audience welcomed me to the event and so began a frank and open discussion about delivering collaboration channels and how engaging the workforce in them is tough.

What followed my session blew me away. Professor Brian Cox took to the stage to discuss the theory of the universe and everything we understand about our existence – not too heavy for 4pm on a Thursday!

His ability to translate seriously complex data into things we could understand is amazing. I have never felt more like Penny in Big Bang theory but I was starting to understand more than I ever thought I would.

While he covered a vast amount of theory there were two things I really took away that I could relate to the day job:

Data vs opinion
Everything he talked about was backed up by data; data to prove or disprove a theory. It made me realise just how much we accept opinion in the world of communication.

Employee engagement and the correlation to productivity is proven in data. Yet if the opinion of leadership is the opposite we just back down. How can we overcome this huddle when opinion is overruling what the facts are telling us? What do we need to do differently to get engagement on the agenda of the board?

Vague but interesting
This was the comment from Tim Berners-Lee’s manager on his first paper about information and the theory of the World Wide Web. I’m pretty sure this is how my manager thinks about some of the stuff I come up with, and no I’m not comparing my ideas to the introduction of the World Wide Web, but it makes you think about how we approach change.

The concept and theory about what you are trying to do can be vague. We then have to go and find out a way to prove we can do it or that it needs to be done. It doesn’t matter where it starts… Vague but interesting is a great foundation.

For me, attending events like this not only helps to contribute to your CPD but they also gives you that head space away from the day job which we all need.

I’m about to take three weeks off to get married and have my honeymoon and my brain has been horribly full of everything I need to do before I go. Now, with some space yesterday I’m clearer about what I need to get done before I go and I have some great ideas about how I want to influence our strategy going forwards.

I got all of that in 2 hours so I can’t even imagine what other delegates took away from being there all day!

I have done a few on LinkedIn to test out that platform – I quite liked it but I think i prefer my own space. I have just published a blog from September here

I have a new role and was struggling with having an opinion with this blog while my role is more external comms

It’s been a while since something has inspired me to write… Until last week.

When it comes to internal social media we turn to technology experts to help us meet the needs of our business. But just last week, in a discussion with our technology partners, I realised that the people designing these tools don’t necessarily have the experience of working in internal comms for a big organisation and therefore don’t build it with all the functionality we need.

The example here was about files stored on the online platform. These files are owned by one person and can only ever be owned by one person. When they leave, they still own the file, their name is just greyed out with ‘inactive’ written next to it. Can this be changed? No. Why not? Because the legacy of that person should remain visible. Sure, that’s exactly what I need, a load of inactive people owning content all over the site. So when someone needs that document or has a query and they comment on it, that comment isn’t highlighted to anyone, and if someone else replaces that person they will never own that file, they can upload a new version but the owner will always be the inactive one. How demotivatong to see all these inactive people that inevitably you come across when a system has been in place for over 4 years.

Quite honestly I think this is a bit rubbish and it made me think that these people, designing these platforms don’t seem to consider the real businesses they are going into, nor do they think about the internal comms function.

This could just be an issue on the tool we have but as it is built by a huge global technology company I hope that others have the same issue so I know I’m not alone!